Freelancer management template

If you work with a team of freelancers, you know how difficult it can be to keep everything organized. You need to send, receive, and provide feedback on assignments—plus track invoices, monitor your budget, and make sure freelancers submit work on time. With so many moving pieces to juggle, it’s hard to get a clear picture of who’s doing what. 

But it doesn’t have to be that complicated. With a freelancer management template, you can track and execute work in one central place. 

What is a freelancer management template? 

A freelancer management template is a reusable guide that helps you assign, receive, and track freelancer work. It lays out all the information you need to consider when managing a team of freelancers—like what you’ve assigned, what’s in progress, and who’s working on what. 

Every time you start a project involving freelancers, you can just copy your template, fill in the required information, and get your initiative rolling. You don’t have to start from scratch or worry about missing important information. Instead, it’s all laid out for you. 

The benefits of a digital freelancer management template

Freelancer management isn’t just about organizing work on your end—you also need to make sure contractors can easily see and submit their assignments. Creating your freelancer management template with project management software means you and your freelance team can easily collaborate. Not only can you see what everyone is working on, but your freelancers can also see exactly what they’re responsible for and when it’s due. They can even attach their completed assignments directly to tasks in your template, instead of sending them via email or a separate tool. 

With a digital freelancer management template, you can: 

• Streamline your workflow and collaborate directly with freelancers in one central location.

• See a bird’s-eye view of all outgoing and incoming assignments. 

• View updates in real time as freelancers complete and submit work. 

• Add assignees and due dates to tasks so there’s no confusion about deadlines or responsibilities. 

• Attach Google Docs like assignment briefs, scope of work documents, and completed work directly to tasks.

• Organize work according to the assignee, due date, status, type, billing month, and more. 

• Automatically notify freelancers when you assign or update a task. 

What to include in your freelancer management template

Successful freelancer management is all about organization and communication. You need a system to keep track of the assignments each independent contractor is working on—not just so you know what’s on their plate, but also so freelancers can see what they’re responsible for. 

The best way to do this is by creating a section in your template for each freelancer. Then when assigning work, add tasks to each team member’s respective section so it’s clear what they should be working on. 

You can also create columns to track additional information about each assignment, like: 

• The assignment description.

• The assignment deadline.

• The type of assignment (for example, freelance writers might work on articles, product descriptions, or landing pages). 

• The assignment status, like “not started,” “in progress,” or “delivered.”

• The billing month for the assignment, to make it clear how freelancers should invoice for work. 

Once you’ve finalized the layout of your template, add additional features to create a clear workflow for your team. For example, add subtasks to individual assignments that lay out each step your team needs to take before freelance work is complete. For a team of freelance writers, assignments might include creating a first draft, reviewing work, and publishing in WordPress. 

Integrated features

• Custom fields. Custom fields are the best way to tag, sort, and filter work. Create unique custom fields for any information you need to track—from priority and status to email or phone number. Use custom fields to sort and schedule your to-dos so you know what to work on first. Plus, share custom fields across tasks and projects to ensure consistency across your organization.

• Approvals. Sometimes you don’t just need to complete a task—you need to know if a deliverable is approved or not. Approvals are a special type of task in Asana with options to “Approve,” “Request changes,” or “Reject” the task. That way, task owners get clear instructions on what actions they should take and whether their work has been approved or not. 

• Proofing. Proofing makes it easy to leave specific, actionable feedback on images. Make annotations directly on images and PDFs so your team knows exactly what needs to be done in order to complete their work. Then, track that feedback in subtasks so no action items fall through the cracks. Ultimately, proofing makes the process of giving and receiving creative feedback smoother and less frustrating.

• Automation. Automate manual work so your team spends less time on the busy work and more time on the tasks you hired them for. Rules in Asana function on a basis of triggers and actions—essentially “when X happens, do Y.” Use Rules to automatically assign work, adjust due dates, set custom fields, notify stakeholders, and more. From ad hoc automations to entire workflows, Rules gives your team time back for skilled and strategic work.

Recommended apps

• Google Workplace. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.

• Dropbox. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Dropbox file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane.

• Adobe Creative Cloud. Creative teams do their best work when they can focus on designing. With the Asana for Adobe Creative Cloud integration, creative and design teams can easily access the information they need to kick off work, get feedback from reviewers and approvers, and deliver final assets without leaving Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. See new tasks, share designs, embed XD share links, and incorporate feedback delivered in Asana—all in Adobe Creative Cloud.

• Figma. Teams use Figma to create user flows, wireframes, UI mocks, prototypes, and more. Now, you can embed these designs in Asana, so your team can reference the latest design work in context with related project documents. And, unlike screenshots, live embeds update in real time to reflect changes made in a design file, eliminating the overhead that comes with finding the right files and updating images.

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